The New Zealand national team has won the right to host the first contest back on Kiwi soil, with Michael Maguire's men to face Tonga a full week before the Warriors make their return to Mount Smart.
The world's number-one ranked side will run out onto the Penrose venue on Saturday, June 25 to face Kristian Woolf's much-ameliorated Tongan team, while Nathan Brown's band of travelling Warriors will be forced to wait until July 3 to do battle with the Wests Tigers.
While the decision to drop the international test in ahead of the highly-anticipated NRL clash ruffled some feathers within the Warriors' camp, the loose threat that players under Brown's watch would not be released for duty has in fact amounted to nothing, per Stuff.co.nz.
This relaxed stance will now allow Chanel Harris-Tevita, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Jazz Tevaga, Shaun Johnson and a hobbled Tohu Harris to enter Maguire's selection frame.
Although fanatics of the premiership-less franchise will now be made to wait more than 950 days between watching their stars live, the seven-day window is sure see a veritable swathe roll through the gates, with the Kiwi Ferns also donning the boots in a curtain-raiser.
The Test will represent the first occasion since November 2019 that the Kiwis have congregated - a 23-8 victory over Great Britain in Christchurch.
The one-off clash will act as the nation's first sign of a tune-up ahead of the World Cup opener against Lebanon on Sunday, October 16 in Warrington.
